how long can A10 be flown inverted

asking since i tried it last night and after about 10 seconds of hanging upside-down had absolutely everything shutdown on me. Engines, HUD, MFCD's, even the warning panel was dim, completely cold aircraft. is this how its supposed to be, or a bug?

(sorry, no track)

About 10 seconds. :)

The A-10 has an auxiliary fuel tank that is fed by the rest of the system to feed the engines during inverted flight (well, technically it's negative G that matters, but this usually only becomes an issue specifically with inverted flight, that G-profile wouldn't be sustained very long when initiating a dive). Once this runs dry, your engines cease to be fed fuel, and the shut down.

This is all as it should be, but lots of fun when you first encounter it. For me I "noticed" this feature back in testing while doing some stunts at low level, flying inverted over another guy who was heading in to land. I was surprised, to say the least, and I have never worked so hard and so fast to get my engines spooled back up. :D

Yea, the A-10 is not meant to be flown inverted. I think it has some kind of small, inverted-flight tanks to supply the engines so that you can fly upside down for a short period, but the main fuel tanks are gravity fed I think. So if you need to fly for a while inverted, cut the throttle to idle- you will use up your inverted feed fuel much more slowly.

"For negative g flight, collector tanks will supply the engine with sufficient fuel for 10 seconds operation at MAX power."

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=78325

Hope this helps.

edit: *snipe*

10 seconds if you sustain inverted level flight....

I was going to do a top gun moment of flying upside down, on top of my wingman and wave hello. But as soon as you fly inverted, the nose starts to drop towards the ground, to which you respond by pushing the stick forward, which causes even more negative Gs. Lets just say it took about 3 seconds before everything shut down, and I was too low to restart... My spine had a wonderful time with the ejector seat boosters... :(

So far I have not been able to restart an engine that has shut down due to negative G even after motoring it for over 30 seconds. Have not tried it with 1.1.1.0 yet.

Wait, does the auxiliary fuel tank refills after a while? I'm surprised that this still happens in modern planes. I thought the fuel injectors changed that. Are all planes like that?

Not all, but certainly a fair few. Most can fly negative g for longer than the hog, but most are still limited.

I was able to fly inverted for about 40 seconds at idle. I got up a bunch of speed and then threw throttles to idle before rolling over. The engines didn't quit so I flipped back over not wanting to push it. Anyone gone longer?

Wait, does the auxiliary fuel tank refills after a while? I'm surprised that this still happens in modern planes. I thought the fuel injectors changed that. Are all planes like that?

Modern plane?..the A10?? ;)

Avionics are pretty new, but the fuel / hydrolihs / electrics is allll 1960's tech afaik

thanks guys. that does answer it :)

i was quite high so i did manage to restart before meeting earth

Well I my right engine will not cut-off only my left... I can even start my right engine without flipping the fuel switches on the left side.

Fuel system diagrams anybody?

This effect was inserted when Flaming Cliffs 1.2 came out a looong time ago. The first planes from the franchise to exhibit is were the Su25 and Su25T.

I would lay odds that you get good fuel flow even upside down, but oil flow is probably near "0".

To be strict, on the question asked in subject I would answer "until it will fall". At least, after the engines will shut down, plane still can fly inverted. ;-)

well if you want to be all that strict - the question was not how long plane can fly , but how long it can be flown which kinda implies being under pilot control :)

but i get your drift.

About 10 seconds. :)

 

The A-10 has an auxiliary fuel tank that is fed by the rest of the system to feed the engines during inverted flight (well, technically it's negative G that matters, but this usually only becomes an issue specifically with inverted flight, that G-profile wouldn't be sustained very long when initiating a dive). Once this runs dry, your engines cease to be fed fuel, and the shut down.

 

This is all as it should be, but lots of fun when you first encounter it. For me I "noticed" this feature back in testing while doing some stunts at low level, flying inverted over another guy who was heading in to land. I was surprised, to say the least, and I have never worked so hard and so fast to get my engines spooled back up. :D

There is no way you can tell me that you were flying over a guy who was about to land (so maybe 2000 feet) and you got your engines running again with the APU? NO WAY! :D

There is no way you can tell me that you were flying over a guy who was about to land (so maybe 2000 feet) and you got your engines running again with the APU? NO WAY! :D

Heh, I was just wondering this myself.

There is no way you can tell me that you were flying over a guy who was about to land (so maybe 2000 feet) and you got your engines running again with the APU? NO WAY! :D

If you notice the engine failure quickly (like a good pilot should ;)) then you don't need the APU to restart the engines. All you need to do is push the engine operate switches to ignition, and provided the core RPM is still high enough they will re-light. Speed is essential when it comes to an engine flame out, both in respect of spotting the flame out and reacting to it.

I also find if you move the throttles to cutoff and then move them forward again they will restart.

I also find if you move the throttles to cutoff and then move them forward again they will restart.

i wish i knew this before i ejected a few minutes ago. :doh:

Tried this last night. Good thing I had spent so much time practicing cold starts on the ground. I hadn't realized the benefit of that, until I had to get the engines restarted and everything back on-line while maintaining my airspeed to prevent falling out of the sky. Pretty cool stuff! :D